Toliara Thumped
Chan Takes It Out
Two defeats in a row is not something that this Grilled Birds team is used to, and if some of their recent pledges have gone unfulfilled, they would at least issue a belated statement of intent against Madagascar II.1 challengers Bayer 04 Toliara, in the World Battle tourney today. Toliara might be flying pretty high in the league with a Madagasikara Consolation Cup already in their trophy cabinet, with a squad that is frankly admirable for being just five years old. The Birds were on form unlike so many of their other games this season, unfortunately for Toliara, which had to mean nothing other than a painful lesson.
Midfield has been popularly acknowledged as Toliara's strong suit, what with current national midfielder Rado Rasoanirina starting alongside captain and fellow homegrown star Cedric Ravelonomenjanahary, who may yet make his international return. 21 year-old Polish regular Wojciech Ciechacki may yet outstrip both of them, if their fans are to be believed, and in Romanian Number Nine Marius Dobrescu, they had a speedy customer who is certainly no stranger to scoring.
Grilled had their own collection of top talent, of course, and the head-to-head encounters would soon go poorly for Toliara. Perhaps just a little too sure of their own abilities, which was understandable, their midfield unit would not leave a man back as often as was perhaps wise. This commitment to pressing ahead might well have intimidated many teams, but not this Grilled side. That said, the Birds' opener would come via free-kick, as
Bhavya Panigrahi got one over the wall in the eighteenth minute.
Spanish goalie César Vargas Porras was close enough to saving that that the Toliara supporters couldn't fault him, and they came close enough to an instant equalizer by Denis Rakotoniaina from a corner, that they could justifiably think of an eventual comeback. Dobrescu was creating enough problems for the defence, definitely. They were looking good without the ball too, with Andrianirina Raveloson tracking back to dispossess
Kalki Parvathaneni in the 32nd minute. Raveloson's hard work would be loudly appreciated... only to be abruptly cut short as
Moey Xin Seng smashed a near thirty-yarder past Porras from nowhere.
This strike finally shook the Madagascarians to the core, and the rest of the first half would be a tizzy, as their shape and poise was lost. German defender Moritz Hebelich would take a yellow card for preventing
Abd Hadi Taib Mazhud from taking a quick free-kick, which was for naught as
Chan Ze Han threw himself into a scissors kick to make it 3-0 from the restart anyway. It would then be
Vikram Mudaliar's turn to be booked for his uncalled-for hacking of Nasrollah Hayati, but that would also be swiftly overshadowed as Chan took after Moey in firing it home from distance.
The Bayer 04 Toliara players seemed slightly shellshocked as they contemplated being four goals down when the referee blew for half-time, but they were back to being more of their usual selves, after the fifteen-minute rest. Their organization had not much changed, though, and with their defence somehow still wingback-biased, Grilled were always going to have good odds of scoring, whenever they managed to feed their strikers. Abd Hadi teased with a lob in the 56th minute, before
Chan Ze Han completed his hat-trick, dribbling in past an uncertain-seeming Sinan Sevilen from the left.
There was no doubt how it was going to end now, and it was moreover becoming something of a personal nightmare for centreback Moritz Hebelich, who had oft been left trying to do the job of two or three defenders. It was thus no surprise when he got easily outsprinted by
Vikram Mudaliar for the fifth goal in the 68th minute. Toliara head coach Pierluigi Soddi would finally make his first change then, taking ineffective Ivorian forward Innocent Déblé off for Alexander Kleiner, which Bakhtiar countered with
Heng Dong Chu on for Kalki. The Birds probably prevailed in this tactical reshuffling, as
Shekar Kannan finished neatly from an Abd Hadi assist, with Heng having provided the critical breakthrough pass.
Douglas Carapaica would be withdrawn as a precaution after he barely avoided a vicious Ciechacki challenge in the 79th minute, with
Sølve Lunde getting a ten-minute run-out. Hebelich would soon be off for a second yellow, but one senses that he might be in a way glad to see the back of this slaughter. Bakhtiar would use his final sub on
Radovan Jaška, who went on for
Teo Chuan Yong, but there would be no further goals for all of Jaška's unrestrained efforts.
